A vague, general, and anonymous denial, issued by men who seek to wash their hands of innocent blood, cannot avail against Mr. Gibson's clear, specific, and circumstantial statement. The Secretary of our embassy states that on October 11th "repeated" inquiries were made of Herr Conrad, the official in charge of the Political Department of the German Government in Belgium, the last inquiry being at 6.20 p.m. by the clock (an hour after the victim had been sentenced to death), and that on each occasion assurance was given to the Legation that "sentence had not been pronounced" and that he (Conrad) would not fail to inform us as soon as there was any news.
Does Herr Conrad deny this?
The Brussels "semi-official" statement has the hardihood to state to the world that the American Minister (Brand Whitlock) had admitted that "no such promise or assurance was given," and it places the responsibility upon M. Deleval, the Belgian legal counselor of the American Embassy. But this impudent lie is speedily overthrown by the positive statement of our Minister at Belgium to our Ambassador in London as follows:
"From the date we first learned of Miss Cavell's imprisonment we made frequent inquiries of the German authorities and reminded them of their promise that we should be fully informed as to developments. They were under no misapprehension as to our interest in the matter."
Will the American people or the people of any nation hesitate to accept the clear, positive, and circumstantial statements of Minister Whitlock, Secretary Gibson, and Counselor Deleval, at least two of whom are wholly disinterested in the matter, as against the self-exculpatory, general, and anonymous denials of a "semi-official" press bureau, especially when it is recalled that from the beginning of the great war, the German Foreign Office, with whom military honor is supposed to be almost a religion, has stooped to the most shameful and barefaced mendacity?
When the world recalls how Austrian Ambassadors in Paris, London, and Petrograd made the most emphatic statements that the forthcoming ultimatum to Serbia would be "pacific and conciliatory," and assured the Russian Ambassador that he could therefore safely leave Vienna on his vacation on the very eve of the ultimatum, and when the German Ambassadors in the same capitals gave the most solemn and unequivocal assurances that
"the German Government had no knowledge of the text of the Austrian note before it was handed in and had not exercised any influence on its contents,"
and later admitted, when the lie had served its purpose by lulling the world into a sense of false security, that it had been fully consulted by its ally before the ultimatum was prepared and had given it carte blanche to proceed, when these notable examples of Prussian Machiavellism are recalled, little attention will be given to these futile attempts to wash from the shield of German honor the blood of Edith Cavell.
One can to some extent understand the Berserker fury which caused von Bissing to say in effect to this gentle-faced English nurse, "You are in our way. You menace our security. You must die, as countless thousands have already died, to secure the results of our seizure of Belgium"; but can we understand or in any way palliate the attempt to hide the stains of blood on that prison floor of Brussels with a cobweb of self-evident falsehoods?
These stains can never be washed out to the eye of imagination.